CONSERVING MOISTURE IN NEBRASKA ORCHARDS 87 



different styles of discs. One is the common field disc such as wn 

 find on every farm. The other is what is known as an orchard disc. It 

 is reversible. You can turn the disc either way, throwing the dirt 

 lo the tree, or away from it. This orchard disc has ten discs, five in 

 each section, and is drawn by two horses. The two sections are 

 separated by about six feet of si)ace. When we drive along a row of 

 trees with the team, the disc being extended you can run one section 

 of it right up along the trunk of a tree without the necessity of driv- 

 ing under the tree, with your horses. The limbs remain uninjured 

 and the fruit is not scraped off. The next time we disc the orchard 

 we reverse the disc and throw the dirt the other way, thus the ground 

 is kept level. After makin;? two rounds with the reversible disc we 

 cut out the middle with a common field disc. One man with four 

 horses will do twice as much work as one man with two horses with 

 the orchard disc. By using the two discs we reduce the cost of labor. 

 After we have gone over the ground, and thoroughly disced it with these 

 two disc, keep down the weeds and retain a dust mulch with a harrow. 

 We use the Forkner harrow. It is a spring-tooth harrow, and stands 

 about 18 inches above the ground. It is made in four sections, and 

 each section has a lever that you can raise to dump the weeds, or 

 whatever trash may gather. If there is any I'ash on the ground, the 

 harrow will act like a rake and gather it up. If you haven't some way 

 to dump this trash, your harrow doesn't do any good at all. This 

 harrow leaves a perfect dust mulch. By going over the ground about 

 every ten days or two weeks, you can not only keep the soil in a per- 

 fect condition; but you keep down the weeds and form a dust mulch 

 which conserves the moisture, and plant food for the use of the tree 

 exclusively. 



Now I might say right here, before I continue that branch of the 

 discussion further, th. t, of course, in cultivating an orchard in Eastern 

 Nebraska, we all have that difficultv, whether or not it is in clover 

 oi cultivated, — blue grass comes in. I remember while I was a boy my 

 father tried to introduce blue grass. We had a good deal of timber 

 land, rough land, along the Weeping Water creek. Nothing grew 

 under the trees. I remember as a boy of helping my father sow blue 

 grass under those trees, and along the road side. I suppose we sowed 

 blue grass dozens of times, without result. Now it is just the other 

 way. The blue grass comes in inspite of us. We now have to fight 

 it to keep it out. If the blue grass gets a start in your orchard it 

 is not necessary to cake a plow and turn over the sod in order to kill 

 the blue grass. I find that if we go into the orchard early in the spring, 

 when the frost is just out, the disc will cut the blue grass loose. If 

 you disc your orchard both ways, and then follow that up with a har- 

 row such as I described, you will kill your blue grass. It may be nec- 

 essary to repeat this operation in order to get all the sod. This is 

 especially so should a heavy rain follow your first discing. 



